I was preaching on what it means to be a disciple. I stopped and asked the congregation - ‘how many of you think of yourselves as disciples?’
I was shocked that maybe only one hand raised besides mine!
This is a group of very faithful people. I had assumed that pretty much all of them thought of themselves as disciples.
So I rephrased the question…
’How many of you think of yourselves as followers of Jesus?’, I asked. This time, more than half the group raised their hands.
I couldn’t resist asking one more question: ‘What’s the difference, for you?’
One brave soul answered: ‘I guess following Jesus is more about having an imperfect life and faith and trying to get closer to what God wants for us.’
To her, the difference was that being a disciple - as opposed to a follower of Jesus - felt formal. It felt like something you had to be trained, and somehow equipped to do, and she didn’t feel like she was.
All of this was incredibly surprising to me, the priest and pastor of this flock for eight years now!
My perception of them is that they are very well-prepared for discipleship - individually, they each have prayer lives, participate in community worship, serve others in God’s name, attend Bible study, love God and neighbor. They’ve mostly been doing this for a long time - decades, lifetimes.
But they themselves did not feel this way. They were more unsure of their grasp of Christianity, of the Bible, of their daily faith life, than I imagined.
It makes me wonder if more of my ministry should be about helping them explore their own ministry.
I’m still reading through Michael Plekon’s Book “Ministry Matters”. The third chapter focuses on Nicholas Afanasiev, an Eastern Orthodox theologian and priest who served in Paris in the early 20th century.
Afanasiev often returned to the them of ‘common ministry’: ‘Every Christian is set apart, ordained by the Spirit, and sent into ministry in the church.’
From a practical perspective, it makes me wonder if most congregational life is set up to be the kind of community that helps its members discover the ministry we share, and the ministry each is called to.
I wonder if I’m really supporting that with the congregation I serve.
When I think of the future of church, this is what I’m thinking about.
Afanasiev presented a "rediscovery" of the church as not just rules and a hierarchy of clergy but as a community of saints, consecrated by baptism to be priests, prophets, witnesses of the kingdom and as you point out, disciples.